Tag: The Gravediggers

THIS REALLY HAPPENED!!
Only the facts have been changed to sell newspapers

The Cheynes,
Ed Furst as Eddie Lynch (vocals/gtr), Pete Hollis (bass/vocals), and Mick Fleetwood (drs), were a 3piece group called The Senders managed by Peter Bardens, because he had this truly immaculate, brown wool ‘manager’s’ suit. Fortunately he tired of this, and we became the Cheynes when he joined us on piano and vocals.
We released a version of the Isley Brothers’ Respectable; we were booked into the Cavern by a very convincing manager as ‘London’s answer to the Beatles’ and got away with it (well, he did: not so sure about us); and we did well enough accompanying and supporting the Ronettes on a tour with the Rolling Stones to be offered the next tour with the Crystals. I threatened to leave if we did not take the Crystals offer…

My next band was The Gravediggers,
Brian Godding (vocals/gtr), Ed Furst as Eddie Lynch (gtr/hmc/vocals), Brian Belshaw (bass/vocals) and Fred Love (drs).
Probably our most important gig was a short residency at the 2i’s Coffee Bar in Soho but, alas, long after it was seriously ‘cool, man.’ The Gravediggers very soon became…

The Ingoes,
Brian Godding (vocals/gtr), Ed Furst as Eddie Lynch (gtr/hmc/vocals), Brian Belshaw (bass/vocals) and Colin Martin (drs).
Yes, the same Colin Martin who became head of music at BBC Radio 2. Slag. We recorded the original demos of some of Sandie Shaw’s early hits (with Chris Andrews singing ballsetto in Sandie’s register), and of some of our own compositions which ended up on obscure records by Michael Crawford, Craig Douglas, The Association, etc. We also backed Sonny Boy Williamson, and This Other Guy on the blues circuit, which gave us enough cred to get away with songs like Nowhere To Run, and some of our own which had (blush) tunes. We wooed our dream manager for several months, and when we finally got him he started manipulating us, most of which we were grateful for (e.g. three months in Paris as the furst (60s) R&B band they had ever seen), but then he wanted to be George Martin and started adding arrangements to our recordings which we could not reproduce on stage. Then, to prove he was George Martin, he had to get someone kicked out of the band… Next!…

The Elastic Band,
aka Ed E Lynch & the Shakedowns, aka the Fantastic Elastics, feat. JC,
Ed Furst as Eddie Lynch (vocals), Rod Alexander (lead gtr), Mel Townsend (rhythm gtr/vocals), Mick Rose (bass), and Lennox Van Rossum (drs).
Great band. Rod played everything I asked him to and much more, but he had this radical oop North idea that musicians were entitled to earn enough to eat, so he left after a few months. Mel then lost heart, so we became a 3piece until Errol Dyer (‘Curly’) came on board with his (cue trumpets) Hammond organ. Even greater band. Round about the same time we did some demos for a couple of rich men’s sons who wanted to be songwriters, so I called myself Ed E Lynch on the records and the video, but refused to drop the band, but, (yawn) oh, you know the rest, don’t you. We then spent several glorious months on US bases in Germany, until we let ourselves be manipulated into supporting and accompanying a random troupe of comedians, jugglers, etc. The plan was that we would be exposed to every prime venue in the American sector, but two soul numbers at the beginning and two at the end was not enough to live down the muzak we had to play in between. Then Len decided enough was enough, and went home to start a family. That’s showbiz.